Friday, June 30, 2017

Remember to submit your application for the 6thUNESCO-APEID Meeting on Entrepreneurship Education,Designing a Relevant and Innovative Entrepreneurship Education: Towards Mutual Recognition of Qualifications in ASEAN, East and South Asia, to be held in Manila, the Philippines, on 23-25 October 2017.

The objectives of the meeting are to:

·Define a model of an “Entrepreneurship Program and Curriculum” within the domain of a Mutually Recognized Qualification/Agreement” (MRQ/A) for ASEAN, East and South Asia to achieve the SDG 4-Education Agenda 2030;

·Develop specific, achievable and realistic factors and action plans as important foundation input to the MRQ/Afor ASEAN, East and South Asia;

·Establish a network or consortium for sharing, exchange and collaboration of ideas and expertise to support the Mutual Recognition of Qualifications and Standards for ASEAN, East, and South Asia at the tertiary education level.

The local organizers in the Philippines will cover 4 nights’ accommodation and meals during the meeting. All other costs, including travel and miscellaneous expenses, will be the responsibility of the participants.

Since space is limited, the participants will be selected based on the information provided in the application form, which must reach the organizers by 18 August 2016.

Summary: Over the past thirty years, the world's patent systems have experienced pressure from civil society like never before. From farmers to patient advocates, new voices are arguing that patents impact public health, economic inequality, morality—and democracy. These challenges, to domains that we usually consider technical and legal, may seem surprising. But in Patent Politics, Shobita Parthasarathy argues that patent systems have always been deeply political and social.

To demonstrate this, Parthasarathy takes readers through a particularly fierce and prolonged set of controversies over patents on life forms linked to important advances in biology and agriculture and potentially life-saving medicines. Comparing battles over patents on animals, human embryonic stem cells, human genes, and plants in the United States and Europe, she shows how political culture, ideology, and history shape patent system politics. Clashes over whose voices and which values matter in the patent system, as well as what counts as knowledge and whose expertise is important, look quite different in these two places. And through these debates, the United States and Europe are developing very different approaches to patent and innovation governance. Not just the first comprehensive look at the controversies swirling around biotechnology patents, Patent Politics is also the first in-depth analysis of the political underpinnings and implications of modern patent systems, and provides a timely analysis of how we can reform these systems around the world to maximize the public interest.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: Defining the Public Interest in the US and European Patent Systems

Abstract: Plagiarism in scientific research has, in recent times, become a topic of discussion and concern in India. The core level of discussion has largely been driven by ethical considerations rather than by the relevant laws existing in the country such as the Copyright Act. Ethics can mean different things to different people and therefore issues related to legitimacy of one point of view as against another will always remain debatable. Punitive actions purely based on ethics may not be acceptable to all and may be difficult to implement, unless supported by law. Plagiarism is stealing someone's intellectual property, which is legally and morally untenable. In addition, it can cause economic disadvantage to the original author. The issue of plagiarism needs to be handled at a much higher level of academic, legal, political and social debate for enhancing the image of Indian research.

The 1st International Conference on Large-Scale Grid Integration of Renewable Energy in India is endorsed by the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and organized by Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Energynautics, Germany.

The Government of India has set the very ambitious goal to install 175 GW of renewable energy generation capacity by 2022. Grid integration thus becomes a very critical challenge to successfully accomplish this target. This international conference aims to connect international experts and Indian stakeholders to jointly discuss the latest technological, regulatory and conceptual developments in this field.

About the Conference

The Conference provides an International Forum to:

Discuss technical and economic issues of the large-scale integration of solar and wind power including the recent advances in transmission technologies (AC and DC)

Discuss worldwide project experiences

Discuss innovative ideas and present results from ongoing research

Stimulate interdisciplinary thinking between renewable energy and power transmission and distribution industries, as well as universities

Identify subjects requiring more research efforts

Proposed Preferential Topics

Project experience related to wind/PV/CSP/storage grid connection

Innovative Smart Grid solutions with wind/solar power and storage

Experience with large-scale integration of wind/PV/CSP/storage power into power systems

IT technology for the integration of wind/solar power and storage

Wind/PV/CSP/storage power monitoring and prediction systems

Wind/PV/CSP integration study experience

Wind/PV/CSP/storage power plant performance for plant operation and interconnection with the grid

Protection aspects of wind/PV/CSP/storage

Wind/PV and storage in distribution grids (distributed generation)

Wind/solar integration study methodologies and data requirements

Modelling of inverters and wind/solar power plants for system inte-gration studies including methods of testing and verification of compliance with requirements, and technologies (on grid side and power plant side) to facilitate integration

Wind/PV/CSP/storage system models for interconnection and planning studies

The new Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI) has launched with a call for small grants applications. The grants will fund working papers and fieldwork to generate new, empirical reflections and analysis on authoritarian populism and the rural world.

About ERPI

ERPI logoDeepening inequalities, failed livelihoods, mass (under)employment, climate chaos and racist anti-immigrant attacks characterise many settings across the world. Forms of 'progressive neoliberalism' — peddled inaccurately as social democracy — have failed to stem disillusionment, disenfranchisement and marginalisation. The rise of populist, nationalist movements — with racist, misogynist and isolationist characteristics — has been one very visible response. Such exclusionary politics are unravelling protections for women, racial minorities, disabled people, LGBTQ communities and many others. This type of populism depicts politics as a struggle between 'the people' and some combination of malevolent elites and racialized, unfairly advantaged 'Others'.

Yet the reactions to authoritarian populism are incredibly diverse, across and indeed within countries. In this Initiative, we are interested in changes ongoing in and in relation to rural areas that both give rise to a particular form of politics, but also offer alternatives. Whether in the US, across Europe, Turkey, India, the Philippines, Brazil or South Africa – and many other countries besides – various forms of reactionary nationalism have entrenched a narrow, sometimes violent, conflictual, exclusionary politics. This may be in the name of 'taking back control' in favour of 'the people', or putting one ideology and position 'first', while excluding others, generating tensions across society. All are responses to crises in contemporary capitalism, yet they are rooted in specific histories, institutional and social structures and political dynamics. Responses may be contradictory: for example shoring up a certain style of political power, while selectively offering progressive policies, whether free education, land reform or investment in rural communities.

The Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI) is focused on the social and political processes across rural spaces that are giving rise to such political reactions today. We seek to understand – but not judge – the characteristics of the social base that give rise to such political dynamics. We also aim to explore how alternatives are being actively generated to regressive, authoritarian politics. We seek to create the space for a debate about alternatives, documenting, analysing and theorising these in order to begin to outline new emancipatory politics that challenge narrow, exclusionary, violent and populist visions, analysing, sharing, supporting, deepening and scaling up alternatives.

Activities

With this call we seek to engage scholars, activists, and practitioners from across the world who are both concerned about the current conjuncture, but also hopeful about alternatives. As outlined below, we will initiate a Working Paper series, supported by a limited number of small grants, to allow for the writing up of original research. In parallel we are inviting other, shorter contributions in a variety of media, helping to map out responses and alternatives.

The Initiative will hold a major conference in early 2018, bringing this work together, with the aim of thinking together about new directions, both for academic research and practical action. We will be encouraging publication of a series of papers in the Journal of Peasant Studies, as well as other popular and media outlets, as a focus for an intense, informed and radical engagement around this theme. We hope others in social movements, political formations, policy institutions, and elsewhere will participate, developing new visions that respond to the current moment.

1. Core Themes

We propose three core themes for the Initiative:

(i) The current conjuncture: rural roots and consequences

(ii) Resisting, organising and mobilising for an emancipatory rural politics

The urgent tasks are numerous. Given the challenges, resistance must be big, wide and insurgent. Yet, the ranks of scholar-activists within academic institutions are relatively thin. However modest our capabilities and resources, we can nevertheless do something that can make an important contribution to wider, global resistance. Our contribution has two important characteristics. It is coordinated by a network of scholar-activists/activist-scholars largely working in academic and independent research institutions, in both the global North and South, and it brings insights to our analysis of and political action around the current conjuncture from longstanding work with a rural perspective. By doing this we hope that we can make a small contribution in sharpening our analysis of the global situation, and by doing so, help inspire more people to join in peoples' movements, community conversations and local innovations and experiments, wherever these may be.

3. Provisional Questions

Under our three core themes, some possible questions for further exploration are outlined here. These are indicative, and not restrictive. There are many, many more, so please do frame and explore them, as long as they broadly link to our core themes and wider political project.

4. What Are We Proposing?

Our initial aim is to kick-start a wide, informed conversation on the themes outlined above, creating a platform for onward debate and action. In this context, we are inviting both short contributions in a range of formats and research-based papers for a new Working Paper series that addresses the themes above. All contributions must be rooted in recent engagements in rural transformation and politics, speaking to particular contexts and experiences, from anywhere in the world. We encourage in particular collaborations between academics and activists/practitioners.

Call For Applications: Small Grants

We have a limited number of $2000 small grants available for those aiming to produce Working Papers, allowing perhaps additional fieldwork to supplement work already done. If you wish to apply for one of these grants, the deadline is 30 June 2017. Final papers are due at the latest on 1 January 2018. Please send a short application, including a one-page abstract, a half-page-word statement on a how you will spend the funds, and a half-page short bio of all proposed authors, including name, background, affiliation and country of residence – all these in one Word file. Applications should be sent to the email address emancipatoryruralpolitics@gmail.com, with the subject line marked ERPI SMALL GRANT APPLICATION.

Beyond those contributing directly, we invite any researchers and activists interested in this area of work and keen to keep in touch to sign up, via social media and email. Please let people know about this Initiative!

Guide: Research & Activism

How do scholars and activists understand and address the opportunities and challenges of linking research and activism? What are some of the approaches and platforms that can help? This guide was developed in collaboration with participants at the 2016 Summer School on Pathways to Sustainability.

Video: About STEPS Learning

Creating a new generation of sustainability professionals

The latest in our series of impact stories shows how, since its launch in 2006, STEPS has worked in various ways to connectresearch, action and training to foster the new skills and alliances needed to address the challenges of sustainability.

Confronting authoritarian populism

A new open access paper in the Journal of Peasant Studies explores the rise of 'authoritarian populism' in rural areas, emerging in response to poverty, inequality and marginalisation. The paper also examines the potential for more emancipatory rural politics, based on collaboration, mutualism and solidarity across boundaries and social divides.

Written by Ian Scoones, Marc Edelman, Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Ruth Hall, Wendy Wolford & Ben White, the paper marks the launch of the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI). This is a new initiative from the STEPS Centre, the Institute of Social Studies (ISS), PLAAS (UWC, Cape Town), Cornell University, City University of New York (CUNY), the Transnational Institute and Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies (ICAS).

Small grants: call for applications

A small grants call for fieldwork and working papers is currently live, with a closing date of 30 June. Researchers around the world are invited to join ERPI in exploring the current conjuncture, examining how authoritarian populism flourishes in diverse rural settings, and how resistance and alternatives to it are being generated for more emancipatory futures.

What drives infectious animal-to-human diseases?

Infectious diseases traceable to animals are driven by climate change, land-use change and the massive expansion of towns and cities, according to contributors to a paper in a major new output from the Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium, a STEPS Centre-led project.